Taliban bans opium in Afghanistan, the drug that brought them to power: 5 points
The Taliban swears by Islamic law. Under the sharia, consuming non-medicinal drugs for pleasure is considered haram. So now, going by that law, the Taliban, rulers of Afghanistan, have banned poppy cultivation and opium harvest.
The announcement comes just when farmers had begun the harvest season. Farmers have been warned that if they proceed with the harvest, they could be jailed.
Taliban said that farms that defy the rules will be burned and destroyed. As for the offenders, they will be punished under sharia law. The details of the punishment are not clear; but offenders can face jail, public flogging or even be executed. Moreover, transporting the drug is also banned.
But the story of Afghanistan and opium, and Taliban’s relationship with the drug is far more complex than a ban.
Here’s what you need to know about Afghanistan, opium and the Taliban’s relationship with the drug:
1. Opium in Afghanistan: Afghanistan supplies nearly 80% of the world’s illicit opium trade. It has been the land of opium for decades. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Afghanistan is the world’s largest opium producer.
The Taliban's supreme leader banned the cultivation of narcotics in Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer, as they seek international recognition in a bid to wind back sanctions pic.twitter.com/WBqQ6JrOab
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 3, 2022
2. The bread and butter: When opium is such a large part of Afghanistan, it is a given that it’s the bread and butter for many. The opium harvest season employed nearly 1,20,000 people in 2019, according to the UNODC Afghanistan opium survey. Afghan farmers say growing opium is just more profitable than growing anything else. For a country whose economy is in a free fall, where there are no jobs to provide food; jobs without money; where people are being forced to sell their children and organs, growing opium seems like a better deal for life.
So if opium puts food on the table, why does the Taliban want to ban it?
3. Taliban’s relationship with opium can only be described as that of a love-hate one. You see, Taliban wasn’t always so opposed to lucrative farming.
1998-2000: This was Taliban 1.0’s stint as rulers in Afghanistan. During this period, opium cultivation went from 41,000 hectares to more than 64,000 hectares under the Taliban rule.
2001: Taliban 1.0 banned opium cultivation in Afghanistan in July 2000. Just like they are doing now, back then too, the Taliban implemented the rule stringently. And by May 2001, a UN report said that the Taliban’s strategy worked with opium cultivation significantly reduced in the Taliban-controlled areas.
2001-02: The impact of the Taliban ban was seen around the world as seizures of opium or opium drugs became minimal.
But post 2002, opium cultivation once again soared in Afghanistan and especially in the Taliban-controlled areas under US invasion.
The majority of opium was cultivated in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, the Taliban’s stronghold, till as recently as 2020.
Opium was one of the Taliban’s major sources of income during the insurgency. Though they deny involvement in the drug trade, a 2018 Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (Sigar) report, said that illicit income made up 60% of Taliban’s income with annual earnings of about $100million - $400 million.
In fact, the ‘fighting season’ in Afghanistan during the period of US involvement also came after the poppy cultivation season. The ‘fighting season’ involves various militant groups, especially the Taliban, escalating violence across the country in coordinated attacks.
However, after coming to power in 2021, the Talibs have not taken too kindly to domestic drug addicts; beating and rounding them up forcefully in ‘treatment’ centres. Taliban believes drug addiction in Afghans can be cured only by beating it out of them.
4. Market: Several drugs used for medical purposes like morphine (to alleviate pain), codeine (used in cough syrups) and more are derived from opium. But in its deadly and illegal form, it is heroin that is also extracted. Afghanistan provides 95% of the heroin in the European market.
5. Opium in India: India is not a major market for heroin; rather low-cost synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines are more prevalent in the Indian addict market. These illegal drugs come from Bangladesh, Myanmar and the North East. But if you scratch your head a little, you’ll remember the staggering 23,200 kg of opium that was seized from the Mundra Port in Gujarat last year. The cost – about $2.9 billion or a more conservative estimate would be $60-90 million. It is reported that the illicit drug came from nowhere but Afghanistan, at the height of the Taliban takeover. It wasn’t meant for the Indian market, but it was meant to be routed to other markets in Australia and Europe.
Taliban banning opium cultivation is likely part of its strategy to be recognised internationally. If Taliban’s ban is serious, then it is likely they will have the same success like they did in early 2000s. But whether nipping the world’s addiction at the root will cost the lives of hungry Afghans or not needs to be seen.